Your Most Influential/Favorite Book
- Thread starter Angie
- Start date
- Mar 27, 2006
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I'll also throw out
Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson
-everybody knows about his other Fear and Loathing book, but Campaign Trail is an incredible glimpse of the inside of a presidential campaign. If you're a political junkie at all, left or right, it's worth a read.
Fear And Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson
-everybody knows about his other Fear and Loathing book, but Campaign Trail is an incredible glimpse of the inside of a presidential campaign. If you're a political junkie at all, left or right, it's worth a read.
- Mar 27, 2006
- 42,753
- 33,774
- 113
Another one that was really, really interesting to me, and you wouldn't think it would be a good read: The 9/11 Commission Report
Not particularly influential, but Endurance by Lansing is great -- the story of Shackleton's trip across the South Pole.
Best sports book by far is Leigh Montville's biography of Ted Williams. Williams might be at the top of my list for people I'd like to have dinner and a few beers with just to listen to the stories.
How about The Sparrow by Russell? Any fans?
Best sports book by far is Leigh Montville's biography of Ted Williams. Williams might be at the top of my list for people I'd like to have dinner and a few beers with just to listen to the stories.
How about The Sparrow by Russell? Any fans?
Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of short stories - maybe the best short story I've ever read is in there, "Harrison Bergeron." In the same vein, Farenheit 451 is really good.
- Mar 27, 2006
- 42,753
- 33,774
- 113
Ok, here's another one. I know it's popular now, and I almost feel silly for saying it, but I really really enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire series. It's not influential. It's not life changing. It's not intellectual. It's just a very, very good story. I was completely engrossed.
Mine are pretty standard reading, wish I had more time to read but just not in the cards right now. But my favorites are still ones I read when I was younger mainly because of how wrapped up I got into reading them.
Old Man and The Sea
Of Mice and Men
Any of the books about the Sacketts by Louis Lamour.
I have read lots of other books since then but none have completely sucked me in the way these did.
And as much as I hate to admit it and probably get flamed for it I also enjoyed reading the first 2 Harry Potter books. Haven't read any of the others.
Old Man and The Sea
Of Mice and Men
Any of the books about the Sacketts by Louis Lamour.
I have read lots of other books since then but none have completely sucked me in the way these did.
And as much as I hate to admit it and probably get flamed for it I also enjoyed reading the first 2 Harry Potter books. Haven't read any of the others.
I couldn't get into it. I'm ashamed to say that's the only novel for which I've ever used Cliffs Notes for a class assignment.
I like that one too, and another John Steinbeck novel I enjoyed was The Grapes of Wrath. Great story all the way til the end and then
it got weird.
At the insistence of my daughter, I finally read my first Vonnegut book, "Slaughterhouse Five." So it goes.
It is hard to get into the first time. I read it the first time in high school - our lit class was reading Grapes of Wrath, but I'd already read it on my own, so I read Gatsby instead. I liked it well enough, but didn't really get into it as much as I did later.
VERY good place to start. That's an excellent one. The whole Kilgore Trout line is excellent.
You and I would definitely get along. I've read everything RAH ever wrote, most of them more than once. "Stranger in a Strange Land" was definitely his most influential book, but personally, I preferred Troopers, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and strangely enough, The Number Of The Beast. Job: A Comedy of Justice is up there too.
The earlier one was a favorite of mine too along with Space Pioneer and Space Service. Set me off reading science fiction including Foundation series.
Other fiction included Deerslayer, Two Years before the Mast, Grapes of Wrath, and David Copperfield.
One of the interesting things about science fiction is which of the predictions came true. The example I point to a lot is Heinlein writing about a device called a "universal pantograph." It is pretty much a dead-on description of what we now call a 3d printer.
Love all of these. I'd read pretty much all of Louis Lamour's books by the time I was 14.
And I've read all of the Harry Potter books multiple times. I absolutely love them, they are incredibly well written, especially toward the end of the series. It's second behind A Song of Fire and Ice as my favorite series.
